"One Vision" is a song written and recorded by the band Queen, first released as a single in 1985 and then included on their 1986 album A Kind of Magic. It was originally written by Roger Taylor about Martin Luther King, Jr., and includes lyrical references to King’s "I Have a Dream" speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963. The song featured briefly in the film Highlander playing on the radio in the car of the gun nut, it was also featured in the movie Iron Eagle. Queen were inspired to write and record this song because of the euphoric feeling that came from their performance at Live Aid. The song was included in all Queen's live concert performances of the 1986 Magic Tour, as the very first song of each concert. They claimed they chose "One Vision" as the introduction song because its intro made a perfect concert introduction.

Oddities

Distorted vocals

The song contains mysterious and distorted beginning vocals (which on the album and extended versions, also appear throughout Roger Taylor's drum section and in the end), most prominently the vocals retained in the single version.

Forward message

The reversed vocals at the start of the song relay new lyrics when played forwards—they say, "God works in mysterious ways... mysterious ways...". Though it has been claimed by an official Queen fan club that the second part is sung by Brian May, it is likely sung by Freddie Mercury. It is clearly shown during the portions of the studio recording session of "One Vision" on both the Magic Years documentary and the DVD Greatest Video Hits II that Mercury sings the line.

"Fried chicken"

The final line of the song (in both the studio and live versions) is "fried chicken", although the lyrics say "one vision". This was a result of a prank that Freddie Mercury played in the studio, as the band had fried chicken for dinner that day. Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury's lover, says in his book, that the singer was not sure, whether to include it in the final cut or not. Hutton encouraged him, saying "You are big enough" (to get away with this).

Live performances

What is notable that the live performances of the song added an additional section in the beginning of the song, right after the guitar riffs without the percussions, and a big finale, which included ad-libbed vocals by Freddie Mercury. The ad-libbed vocals were not present on all performances though, the most notable being the performance at the Maimarktgelände in Mannheim, on 21 June 1986.

Also, the live versions of the song included a different version of the intro, which starts like the single version intro, but later changes into the album version intro, but repeats the section after the vocals "Ii" near the end. It also features the initial distorted vocals as they were in the single version.

However, the version used on the Wembley shows was yet different from the one mentioned above - basically it had the complete initial distorted vocals, and the first part was also like in the one in the album and extended versions, but the transition to the second part was just like in the version, mentioned above, and it did include the repeated section in the end. The VHS version of the July 12th Wembley show has the first part of the middle instrumental section of the studio version of Brighton Rock instead of the initial distorted vocals. The version of the song from the 11 July Wembley show has not yet been officially released. Interestingly enough, none of the two versions of the intro has been used with a studio version of the song so far.

Single B-side

A remixed version of the song, basically an extended and completely different (but not in structure) version of Roger Taylor's drum section from the song, but retaining the ending (however with a longer version of the music from the end of the song's intro plus an additional non-distorted sond over the final vocals "Vision vision vision vision...", which are like in the single version of the song), and repeating the existing famous distorted vocals (also in a new form, which is the first repetition), plus adding new distorted vocals (although they are nowhere as prominent as the famous ones), has been released as the song's B-side on both the 7" and 12" singles, and titled "Blurred Vision".

Cover versions

"One Vision" has been covered by many artists, the most notable is the German-language cover by the industrial music band Laibach, titled "Geburt einer Nation" ('Birth of a Nation'), which changed the song's feel and mood from the somehow light-hearted and optimistic original to the feel and mood of a Nazi propaganda song. This version also starkly revealed the ambiguity of lines like "One race one hope/One real decision". It was released in 1987, on the album Opus Dei. A video was also shot for this version, directed by Daniel Landin.

Music video

The music video to "One Vision" mainly showed the band recording the song at Musicland Studios in Munich and was the first to be directed and produced for Queen by Austrian directors Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, also collectively known as DoRo. DoRo and Queen developed a fruitful working relationship which would result in numerous acclaimed and award-winning videos (for "Innuendo" and "The Show Must Go On", among others).

The video also featured a "morphing" effect of the band's famous pose in 1975's "Bohemian Rhapsody" video to a 1985 version of the same pose.

The video even shows John Deacon on the drums. It isn't known if he actually played some drum parts in the song or if it is just a joke.

Chart performance

"One Vision" became another hit single for Queen in many countries, usually reaching the Top 40, where it did in the Netherlands (#21), Switzerland (#24), andGermany (#26). It also had very minor chart success on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #61. It became a big hit in the band's native UK, peaking at #7 in the singles chart, a strong showing for a rock band at a time when pop music was by far the more dominant genre in Britain at this time.

It also made #10 on Australia's ARIA Chart.

Other Uses

The song is featured in the movie Iron Eagle and is on the soundtrack. The version on the Iron Eagle soundtrack is the original single version, which preceeded the album version by nearly a year. The song was recorded in September of 1985 (according to the "One Vision" documentary found on The Magic Years Vol. 1 VHS and the Greatest Video Hits Vol. 2 DVD, chronicling the recording of the song). The single was released November 4, 1985, the soundtrack album was released in January of 1986, and the song was remixed for the album, which came out June 2nd, 1986.

The song also appears on the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, and in-game on the radio station 'Liberty Rock Radio 97.8'.

During the 2008-09 season it was used as the official song of Rotherham United F.C.

It is also used in Ricky Gervais Fame DVD as he enters the stage.

A remixed and edited version of the song was used in Sony's E3 2009 Opening and Closing videos. A small part of the footage from the music video was also included in the opening.

The song is available as downloadable content for the Rock Band series and is the hardest song on drums of the Queen pack.

References

• Queen - Magic Years vol. 1 (1987) VHS
• Queen - At Wembley (1990) VHS
• Queen - Live At Wembley '86 (1992) CD
• Queen - Live At Wembley Stadium (2003) DVD
• Queen - Live In Budapest (1987) VHS
• Queen - Greatest Hits II (1991) CD
• Queen - Greatest Flix II (1991) VHS
• Queen - Greatest Video Hits 2 (2002) DVD
• Queen - Box Of Tricks (1992) Boxed set (VHS + CD + booklet)
• Queen - Reigns The World (19??) CD (bootleg; Mannheim June 21st 1986 concert)